“Death is a form of salvation.”
–Gran Torino, My Hero Academia
“Everything is a work in progress until submission.” That is the biggest principle I abide by as a constantly growing artist and designer. Years in the making, this design had undergone endless revisions, struggling to keep up with my just as endless brainstorming. I missed my shot at the canonicity, and that was quite a shame, but a much bigger door opened for me. My design for a no-name entity, so to speak, turned into a work of art. Here we are now, four years later, nearing a date of submission. However, because canonicity is out the window, who is to say that our revisions and ideas end there?
As the character description is as vague as can be, the pool of boxes I could check is as vast as the dunes that sheltered the beast itself. As long as the humanoid criteria is fulfilled, anything one could think of is on the table. The possibilities are infinite as long as the embers of creativity burn within me. Without further ado–
Gathered friends, I present the anti-Toa sentinel unit; the one-eyed golem of unparalleled power; the protosteel spear of the old gods; the hidden monster of the Great Vault; the gate-breaking, earth-shaking, hunter of heroes itself– the Marendar.
Main Build Features
Massive disclaimer: I’m a digital builder. All of my work is essentially theoretical. I don’t have significant experience with building in real life, so I hope you can cut me some slack when analyzing the structure. Over the years, I’ve sought advice from some friends who do, though, with regards to testing the techniques I use in the Stud.io canvas. Unless someone 100% recreates the model, however, we’re never gonna find out completely if this absolute unit will even stand up. All I know is that all the connections I’ve applied are theoretically plausible; they should work, on the basis of established LEGO connectivity systems. Perhaps there were better ways to apply some connections or even cleaner ways to reduce greebling, but I digress.
Let’s start with the piece count— a total of 810 pieces, which is a nod to our beloved franchise, but more particularly, the date for Bionicle Day. 27 of these pieces are custom colored, with 22 of them being the Ben 10 spikes on one of the weapons; these pieces only exist in Magenta and are incredibly rare. A total of 27 over 810 is 3.33%, granting the model a 96.67% replicability using official existing parts. I’m afraid resin/3D printing commissions and/or painting may be required for these custom pieces.
The remaining five custom pieces are one Trans-Neon Orange Hero Factory Head with a Handle, two Silver Glatorian Ankle Armor pieces, and two Silver HF Helmet Visors.
Given how scarce some LEGO parts are nowadays on top of being inhumanly expensive and all too unavailable for a lot of people worldwide, I find the 3D modeling and printing artists out there quite a godsend to our community. I’d support them all if I could. Buying parts from them isn’t so different from buying LEGO parts from a seller. Apropos of that:
Let’s get to the selling point– the head. Utilizing the HF Head with a Handle as the base, System piece connections cradle the ‘skull’ to create the intricate texture. While said skull piece does not officially exist in Trans-Neon Orange,
DuckBricks has offered to sell a resin print of it in that exact color at his store for everyone’s convenience (hopefully including the other Trans-Neon pieces I used). I’m holding you to that, buddy 
Onto the second selling point, coming in hot at twice the speed– the arms. Composed of mainly Technic pieces, the segments are nearly hollow and rather light.
Utilizing Technic “ratchet” connections (inspired by Kutorakh’s own Marendar), the arms provide firm enough articulation and stability.
The digitigrade legs follow a double joint flow in the thigh-hip and thigh-knee connections, a triple joint flow in the hind-shin connection, and a double joint flow with a piston in the lower leg-foot connection. Hopefully the friction applied to the legs is sufficient after all that; if anything, I’d at least like for my model to be able to stand on its own.
The system behind the feet is borrowed from Gamma_ray’s Tauntaun build, making use of doubled up ball-joint connections for reinforced articulation in two axes. The feet can bend forward and backward and ankles side to side. It cannot swivel left to right, however, but then again, neither can ours. The proportions of the legs and feet compared to the rest of the body now provide enough balancing to support the overall weight of the model. Speaking of balance:
The tail is composed of five sections– one base, three segments, and one tip. The Tail Base-Hip connection is triple joint supported with the succeeding segments being only single joint connections reinforced by joint extenders and… physics.
Because Marendar is canonically known to have ‘specialized weapons’ that can possibly adapt to its Toa prey, I opted for one melee weapon and one ranged weapon to cover basic combat.
The Aperture Cannon is based on the DSLR camera’s aperture. With a long axle in the center, the weapon provides a spinning play feature.
The Chain Sword is based on Gipsy Danger’s same weapon from Pacific Rim. The Ben 10 spikes are held together by one long Axle, which can be replaced with a long Rigid Hose, or flextube, to mimic the Chain Sword’s whip form.
On the wrist of each arm contains a Liftarm with a Ball Joint in the middle covered by a CCBS shell and armor; on this ball joint attaches each weapon as a wrist mount when the shell is removed. That ball joint is not exclusive, however, to just the two weapons. Having that connection creates opportunity for further customization with all sorts of weapons attached with a Joint Connector.
The torso is the most complex part of the model, being composed of several Technic Liftarms to support axle-based connections, CCBS shells to cover them, and ratchet jointed Torso-Hip articulation supported by pistons behind the rib cage.
The hip section is the true center of the model, having nine Ball Joint points, connecting to the Torso, the Tail Base, the Legs, and the subsequent support joints of the lower body.
Every Trans-Neon/Trans Orange piece used in the model also officially exists in other certain Trans colors, allowing for a recolor to represent the character’s “emotions”. Like I mentioned above, DuckBricks may sell a custom print of the Trans-Neon Orange skull. Who knows, though? If this model wins the Contest and his heart, maybe he’ll have like a Marendar Bundle of Custom Parts for sale to those who wanna recreate the model hehehehehehe Duck please
Concepts and Motifs
Because my perception of Marendar evolved over time, ideas jumped around like quarks. They eventually converged and gave me clarity for what I really wanted it to look like. I didn’t want a robot, an angel, or an assassin; I wanted a domineering beast.
The overall design and aesthetic takes inspiration from mainly three sources– Monsterverse’s Mechagodzilla,
Megabloks’ Neo-Shifters,
and the color palette of Portal.
Minor inspirations for specific details include Ben 10’s Vilgax (arm capsules),
Zack Snyder’s Steppenwolf (alien finger count)
And Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood’s Gluttony (opening ribcage)
A comment on my very first draft of the Marendar prompted me to expound more on my design as a character to alleviate its bland “generic robot assassin” look. A dinosaur is what I chose as the “completely unrelated concept” to add some “organic” to its overly mechanical theme. (Thank you, Draik)
Marendar, as I envision it, is a “sentinel programmed to hunt and neutralize”, with a little more emphasis on “hunt”. Thus, the motif I decided would be its main flair is a predatory animal, or more appropriately, a beast. More accurately though, a dinosaur, but with bigger arms. Because of that, the model retains the base humanoid shape amidst all the additional reptilian features and “mechanical alterations”. Speaking of animals:
It’s time we addressed the mutated elephant in the room. Yes, the whole model, but mainly the head, is absolutely reminiscent of Michael Bay’s design for the Decepticon, Shockwave. Marendar, a creation programmed to eliminate its prey, is essentially an ‘experiment gone right’. Shockwave is known to experiment on and create his own killing machines, while also bearing a reputation as a lethal combatant himself. This design concept practically merges the creator and the creation, albeit unintentionally. To give Marendar a single eye to represent its single objective on top of a body designed after predatory animals seemed rather… logical.
While the design indeed has an uncanny resemblance to Michael Bay’s Shockwave, the head was actually actively conceived under inspiration from Neo-Shifters, and one of its particular sets I owned, Kero Tox. However, during the first draft stages when people started pointing out the similarity, I realized that perhaps it was a subconscious thing, a passive thing, for me to throw up a clone of Shockwave’s head. I decided to just roll [out] with it, over the years. Some of the design language of the set also carried over, such as the rigid, organic translucent textures. The same motif was applied with the legs and feet, mimicking the plated style of Michael Bay’s Transformers designs but with the organic elements sprinkled around; bones protruding around the mechanical frame.
While the weapons are very much inspired by existing weapon designs, both were modeled with specific ideas in mind. On top of the basic idea of having a close range and long range option to cover most forms of combat, the design language for each differs vastly.
This weapon was conceived with three specific concepts in mind.
- The aperture of a camera determines “how much light enters the picture”. Marendar is the contingency plan to eradicate Toa should they go rogue-- it literally ‘controls how much of the light side gets to stay in the big picture’; A natural gatekeeper.
- I realized that the hole of the aperture was shaped like an octagon. My partner pointed out that it actually looks like the Bagua Mirror. The Bagua Mirror in Chinese culture is a piece of furniture that, depending on how you place it in your house, wards off evil spirits and negative energy. I carried over both concepts to the cannon-- it wards off the rogue spirits. I shaped the barrel of the cannon to be convex as well, as a Convex Bagua Mirror deflects extreme negative energy in dire circumstances– appropriate for Marendar’s programming.
- Marendar’s color scheme was based on the video game Portal, whose antagonist organization is called Aperture Laboratories. This weapon serves as an Easter Egg of sorts to both the game and the Portal Gun itself.
Y’know… Pacific Rim.
Oh? You were expecting a clever, beautiful meaning behind the Chain Sword? Nah. I just like chainsaws and swords. Sheer terror, unbridled destruction and pure epicness were the goals here.
Utilizing the color palette of Portal, the model is granted a ton of physical replicability due to the usage of mainly neutral colors. I decided to keep it that way over the years for both practical and aesthetic purposes. Additionally, I kept the model’s customizable trans-neon highlights, to be reminiscent of Bioshock’s Big Daddies when they convey emotions through changing their eye colors.
Design Process
My revisions over the years are documented in screenshots and badly taken photos, noting what went through my mind whenever I opened the .IO file for no reason. I’d just stare at the model until a detail, no matter how small, bothered me enough to make me change something. That was my revision process, alright, but how did this whole thing originally conceptualize? What motivated me to just drop such a banger into everyone’s feeds? What started all this? Here’s what actually happened…
During the planning stages of the Helryx: Into the Multiverse collaboration, 17 people were tasked to create their own variant of Toa Helryx, and I decided on building a battle-torn Berserker Helryx with a giant mechanical arm inspired by Carmen Cortez from the Spy Kids 3D movie.
Her big reveal in the movie was everything to me as a kid. I subconsciously incorporated that into said Helryx model. This may seem like a completely irrelevant event, but this was the true first step in designing Marendar.
Later down the road, just right before the conclusion of the Toa Hagah Canonization Contests, I created a spiny torso specifically for a post-reformation nomad version of Toa Kualus, who embraced his love for Rahi and practically adapted to their natures as one of them– a Beastmaster. I was, however, unsatisfied with everything else about the model. One last idea formed in my head before I scrapped the MOC entirely. I realized that the mechanical arm from Helryx suited Kualus’ body almost perfectly.
I was on a roll and I continued that imaginative streak by conjuring a random cyclops head inspired by Kero Tox from Neo-Shifters (and Bayverse’s Shockwave, I guess) as a cherry on top. I had put together a beast of a mech out of mere doodling and recycling on the Stud.io canvas. Gazing at my work in awe and fulfillment, I realized I didn’t even bother to name my beloved Frankenstein’s monster. From this came the final random idea before I went all in with my first draft. I had remembered a peculiar thing from an old story I read, that there was still one killing machine out there that existed only in name– a lone sentinel programmed to hunt like a beast. Shards of yesterday’s memories formed the nail in the coffin that would bring this unnamed character to life, and fully ignite the flames of creation–
“What does Marendar look like?”
Out of death, life was created. With that life, death is carried out. A conceptual behemoth was born from the ashes, leaving behind a trail of fire in its wake. Welcome to the inferno. Your unity stands futile before the sacred duty of the old gods– a destiny of destruction awaits.
Closing Remarks
If you’ve reached this footnote, I’d like to say Happy 810NICLE Day, and that I’m grateful you read all that… if you did at all lol. Thank you for the support over the years; it’s been a wild ride seeing everyone enjoy this design as much as I have.
I know you want the blueprints, and I know everybody’s been asking for ‘em for years, so here– the holy .IO file.
The reasons I’ve taken so long to drop this are:
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I wanted to wait for a special occasion, a.k.a. a major contest, to submit it for. It’s basically my masterpiece, and I want nothing less than a grand stage for my beloved. I heard Duck was doing one this year, but even though I’m very early, I wanted to do something nice for 810, so boom, you lookin’ for this?
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This model has been under constant revision for years, making the .IO file an ever-changing maze. I’d be updating it every other day, because ideas really do just come and go. There wouldn’t be a “definitive edition” uploaded unless a Contest occurs. I’d hate it if everyone’s copy of the model became outdated all of a sudden just because I wanted to change something. At least when I submit it to a contest, it’ll be a final, untouched version. So this is that-- I’m committing to this version.
It’s been surreal refining this masterpiece of mine with help from the BIONICLE community. That being said, special thanks are in order for people who directly helped me see this through, in no particular order.
@WholesomeGadunka literally mentored me in the ways of stabilizing Technic builds. I was the theoretical physicist, and he was the mechanical engineer here. I grew with him over the years in learning how to improve our LEGO texturing and art styles. This one goes to you, brother. It’s not much, but look– our fella’s all grown up and properly out in the world. 
@Unpixelled and I go way back, playing table tennis with build ideas like it’s the MOCing Olympics. He was the first person to ever see my first draft of this model. Massive cheers to you, brother, for constant inspiration and support.
@VootCaboot is basically my sister in crime in this community, and I wouldn’t be where I am as a LEGO enthusiast if it weren’t for her. Thank you for existing and being a wonderful friend. Life gets in the way, but you’ll always have a spot in my heartlight.
Kutorakh, Gamma_ray, and DuckBricks– y’all helped bring this build to life in specific ways, and I thank you all for it. Kutorakh’s own Marendar taught me the ways of ratchet joints. Gamma_ray’s Tauntaun taught me a foot technique that maximizes articulation and stability. DuckBricks, interestingly enough, unintentionally influenced this build as well. He reviewed my Magna Raptor, which borrows techniques from ol’ Mary here. Correcting the stability flaws Duck pointed out in the Raptor directly carried over to the origin. Thank you all for the indirect inspiration and hidden assists. 
And one final thanks to everyone who’s been hyping this bad boy up for years on my pages! Y’all encourage me to keep going, even when I have my struggles staying in the fandom. I’m sorry I couldn’t publicize this sooner, but I really didn’t wanna disappoint you all with my indecisiveness. Thanks for helping keep my embers alive.
Welp. I’ve rambled on long enough. (Assuming you opened all the sections above and read them, but if you didn’t, would you kindly pretend I rambled) Let’s get this party started! See you at the end of the line, Toa. A colossal contest awaits us this year, and an eventful 810NICLE Day this weekend! Play well, and happy hero hunting! 
Cheers.